Deadline’s BAFTA Awards Live Blog

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts handed out its BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday, with Alfonso Cuaron’s Netflix movie Roma scoring the marquee Best Film honor at Royal Albert Hall. That wrapped a night that saw Fox Searchlight’s The Favourite, which came in with a leading 12 nominations including Best Film, come away with a leading seven nominations: Lead Actress for Olivia Colman, Outstanding British Film, Rachel Weisz as Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Costume Design, Production Design and Makeup & Hair.

Roma won four awards, including Director and Cinematography for Cuaron. Leading Actor went to Rami Malek for playing Brit rock icon Freddie Mercury in Fox’s Bohemian Rhapsody, cementing his status as the Oscar frontrunner in the category.

em>Bohemian Rhapsody, Warner Bros’ A Star Is Born (Warner Bros) and Universal’s First Man (Universal) came in with seven nominations apiece; A Star Is Born won for Music and Bohemian Rhapsody also took the Sound category. First Man was shut out.

Lots of stars were out last night at Ken Palace and various after-shows. Still others were flying in today. Alfonso Cuarón, remarkably, was in London for a Q&A on Friday night, but missed last night’s party—he had flown back to LA for another Q&A, and arrived back just in time for the ceremony tonight. I only share this because I wonder what timezone he thinks he’s in after all that flying.

Yeah, that’s pretty crazy – I saw him with Spike Lee and other. nominated directors at an AMPAS cocktail on Friday night at Claridges. But Joe, you just flew in, so what time zone do you think you’re in?

“Let’s see which brave souls have battled through this English weather, in a chauffer driven limousine, to be here tonight,” says Lumley. She intros Bradley Cooper, five-time nominated tonight. “He needs to learn how to delegate.”

“[BlacKkKlansman] an incredible film, it’s already won many awards, though I’m surprised it did so well at the Klan Film Festival,” Lumley says, to gasps not laughs. “Yes, alright,” she says and moves on. Eek.

She finishes up by nodding to the Roma guests. “It could be a very busy evening for all of them, and for Alfonso in particular, as he’s been personally nominated in six different categories. One more than Bradley. Come on darling, pull your finger out sweetheart.”

This film has been picking up awards all season. “We share this with 800 other filmmakers and maniacs who worked really hard to break new ground and take animation into new directions, all because we wanted to make a movie that was worthy of Miles Morales.”

That’s two for two now for the most nominated movie here tonight. In round two of voting all members vote on (most) categories, so sweeps can and do happen. But it’s early days, so let’s see what happens.

“We would like to dedicate this Bafta to every woman and working mother who keeps it together and makes it happen,” say Favourite winners Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton who get an enthusiastic response

Even if you don’t like BoRhap, you have to credit this team. Among the treats: the sound team put a call out for people to sing along to Bohemian Rhapsody, which they combined and used to create the sound of the crowd singing along at Live Aid.

Doc has been a funny race this year, with lots of different films cropping up in nominations at the various awards. But if you’re a betting person, you could do worse than put money on this one for Oscar…

And now the first special award. Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema which is going to Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen – the legendary team behind films like The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire, this year’s Colette, and many, many more. Bill Nighy presents. “They have been at the forefront of politically and socially aware filmmaking without ever forgetting to entertain us. Their achievement is phenomenal,” he says. “At no point has Stephen even considered cutting his hair.

I’ve served on BAFTA juries on which Woolley has been president, and have known him and Karlsen for many years. (Namedrop namedrop). I know them to be exceptional producers and wonderful people, with a particular knack for identifying hot new talent before anybody else does. So I’m delighted BAFTA is recognizing them tonight.

“The Favourite is probably destined to win the most BAFTAs based solely on the British spelling of the film’s name,” says commenter Giovanni. We do love our U’s, Giovanni. And we invented the language, after all.

More love for The Fav, this time in a race in which two of the nominees were competing against one another. That’s usually a sure sign neither will win, so the fact that Weisz was able to deliver a win is a good hint that BAFTA is not done awarding The Favourite.

She thanks God for her win. “A few years ago I saw myself in a deep depression and I wanted to quit acting. The only thing that pulled me out of that was God, my belief, my family, and an email from BAFTA telling me they wanted me to be a part of BAFTA Breakthrough Brits and it inspired me to keep going. I’m still a work in progress.

We had a nice moment with Marina last night who told us how thrilled and surprised she was by the Oscar nomination and how she hopes Roma goes some way to helping get more people to see foreign language pictures

At last night’s Universal party, Nicholas Britell took the keys on the piano to play a little of the Beale Street score. It didn’t sound very loud over the venue’s music, but for that moment alone (and the terrific work) I’m gonna pull for him right now.

She calls Tony McNamara “my favorite script writer”. Says McNamara: “When I was in rehearsal listening to these actors I remember thinking, Oh I think this is going to be good. It was such a joy to be around such amazing talents through the whole film, who also turned out to be the lovliest people to drink heavily with.”

Producer Lee Magiday has been on the project just about as long as I’ve known her. We talked about the development process the other day and it’s pretty extraordinary that it took that long and that they got there with such a special film

Wow, a real shocker, but only in BAFTA terms. I would have thought the hometown crowd would have gone for Grant. And this is Green Book’s first tonight. Still, Mahershala has been a leader at other awards, and it truly is a remarkable turn as Don Shirley.

This is a jury vote where jurors divide ALL potentially eligible releases this year among them, so the nominees and winner here are truly exhaustively chosen. I know, I’ve done this jury. It involves several meetings over the course of about 3-6 months.

Geoffrey Baumann thanks Disney and Marvel execs for “allowing Ryan (Cooler) to tell his story” as well as the “thousands of visual effects technicians around the world who worked tirelessly” on the movie

OK, so now we get to see if this counts Roma out of the bigger prize. BUT, BAFTA’s foreign language vote is done by a special chapter, so the larger pool of voters won’t have had the option of putting that film here. It’s still in the mix.

But it’s not to be and Roma wins. At the nominees party last night in the Palace, Pawel told me he had taken a picture of a throne in one of the rooms and sent it to Alfonso saying “Your throne is waiting for you”

OK so The Favourite will leave tonight with the most awards for sure, but I’m still not necessarily feeling a done deal in Best Film, especially since Fave won British, and both of those awards are voted for by everybody.

A big hug between Hayek and Cuarón – now with three BAFTAs in hand – “Stay with me,” he says, but she’s sneaked off while he’s at the podium. He thanks Yalitza and Marina. “I’m seriously touched this film has been received the way it’s been received,” he says. Having delivered three speeches, he trails off – I don’t blame him!

“I still cannot believe that I’m included with this group of actors,” Malek says. “It’s quite difficult entering your [British] world with this role, as an outsider. It’s not lost on me how sacred your musical heritage is.”

I think that’s a first for him to acknowledge Fletcher in a speech. His name is only on the film as an EP, but god knows he must have had his work cut out finishing this film when Singer was removed. His films include Wild Bill and Eddie the Eagle.

OK, so let’s look at stats. 7 wins for The Favourite, 4 for Roma, and some acting outliers: Mahershala Ali picks up Green Book‘s only win for Supporting Actor, and Rami Malek gets Actor for Bohemian Rhapsody. But both Actress prizes went to The Favourite – Rachel Weisz in support and Olivia Colman in lead.

Cuaron: “This time I’m going to read because as you can tell, I blanked and can’t think what to say.” He thanks Participant Media and Netflix for their “faith and courage” and shares the award with “my amazing cast and crew.” He points to the story of an indigenous domestic worker in an age when “anger is in danger of dividing us” and warns of a retreat “back to isolation” Hiding in fear “is not an excuse”

Scorsese talks on a video. He remembers his NYU film where the negative was destroyed, and his professor suggested Schoonmaker to try to salvage it. The start of a beautiful relationship. “We live through every film together and every film is a whole lifetime in and of itself,” Scorsese says. “We’ve spent many lifetimes together.” He also notes her tireless restoration efforts on cinema, and in particular the work of Powell and Pressburger. Schoonmaker was married to Powell right up to his death in 1990.

Schoonmaker: “Marty gave me a second enormous gift, he addicted me to the work of Michael Powell and Emerich Pressburger… then Marty introduced me to Michael Powell, not expecting we would fall in love and marry. This gave me the happiest 10 years of my life. How much more could one want: the best job in the world and the best husband in the world.”

So now all the winners are gathering on stage for a winners photo – a BAFTA tradition. But that about wraps us up. On behalf of me and Nancy, thanks for joining us. We’re off now to go and get pissed with Oliva Colman, if we’re lucky.